RRRUFFFF! AWWRRURRR!

Happy Thanksgiving, EVERYDOGGIE!!

What I learned last year:

1) Do not cap off your tank;
2) If you ignore #1, stay off white berber carpets (turkey parts tend to get stuck in the fibers);
3) Make sure you know exactly where your potty pad is;
4) Jello is not your friend;
5) Just because someone gives it to you doesn't mean you have to eat it!!

And, dear Lord, please hear our prayer that all pups have a family, a warm place to sleep, and plenty to eat.

Best wishes to everyone, with love....

Mary-Margaret O'Brien

Sundays with Mom!

In case I hadn't told you before, me and my mom share a bed. She gets the left hand side with the remote - I get the right hand side. We watch TV before we fall asleep. Sometimes I get right to the end of the bed so I can see up close. When I'm ready to call it a night I get on my pillow and curl up. I snore pretty loud, which you already know, but it's ok. Mom says it's kinda reassuring to know that all is well in my world.

About 4 or 5 in the morning it gets a bit chilly, so I skootch under the covers and snuggle up with my "bed buddy". She says it keeps her warm, too. If she gets up before I'm ready, I let her give me a tummy kiss but then I get back under the covers to catch a few more "zees".

We vacuumed (which I HATE) and did laundry (which I LOVE!). I can't explain it but vacuum cleaners give me the creeps. They make a nasty sound and look mean and eat everything in their path. One time one even ate my leash! With ME on the other end, too. Talk about scary. I got unhooked really fast and watched while my mom untangled me. My leash was pretty curly after that so I got a new one.

Laundry.......oh, that's the ONE thing I can't wait for. I dive into the piles, muss them up to make a nest....rearrange stuff. The undescribable aroma of dirty laundry is the absolutely best smell in the whole world.

That's pretty much it, GrandPapa. We have clean sheets, clothes and other stuff. I even helped make the bed. Mostly I just lay on it to get any wrinkles out, but I know it's helpful.

Hope you had a nice dinner at Mike and Janet's.

I love you..

Mary-Margaret

TGIF!!

Thank God It's Friday!! I wasn't going to write anything because today was pretty uneventful but Mom laid the old Doglish guilt trip on me. (sigh)

Hmmm...well, we went to three banks today. The first one got complicated (not MY fault) because we were taking some money out of two accounts and putting it into two others. The second one was easy, and the third one wanted to know if we wanted to refinance. Well, it seems that got us into trouble a few years ago and Mom patiently explained why we don't want to do that again. They must have gotten the idea because they smiled and wished us a good day, giving up on their sales pitch.

Back at the office I decided to play the old "Ditch the Dog" game. You remember? The one where I pretend to go into the office but duck out just as the door closes? And I get to run up and down the hallways, and listen under people's doors? Well, it's NOT FUN when no body knows you're missing. After about an hour or so, I got pretty worried and squished my little body really close to the door. I'm not allowed to bark so that wasn't an option. FINALLY!! Shannon opens the door to go across the hall and I practically FELL into our office. Boy, were the ladies surprised. I raced inside and JUMPED into my office bed. Sheesh! I don't think I'll play that again for a while.

After work we went to Albertson's. I made some friends. First, I met an 8-month old little girl and we hit it off right away. She stretched her hand out to me and I kissed her fingers. We both started talking to each other quietly...she'd coo and I'd go "wurf". I guess I got a little carried away, though, because on my final "wurf" it was a bit louder than I intended and I got glared at. OK..I am SOOO sorry. It won't happen again (I said). I saw her later in the check out line and I smiled, but kept my "wurfs" to myself.

There were two kids in the vegetable section at the lettuce stand who looked like they needed some loving. The little boy was maybe 5 and the girl was about 7. BigJack (he said that was his name) and Kalani. I know when people need me...it's just a gift I have. Their dog got run over by a car a few days ago and they were missing it a whole lot. So I let them love on me, and I kissed their faces, and they petted me and ......you know. I just did what I do best. We met again in the butcher department, and then again at check out, where BigJack gave me lots of hugs and Kalani helped my mom put her groceries on the checker's counter. They made a point of saying good-bye to me, too. I love helping people. It makes my heart happy.

Then we went to Customer Service so I could do my usual "meet and greet" with my VERY good friend, Janet. She just got a dog from the pound - a black Lab type named "Crash". Her dog Lucky went to the Rainbow Bridge not too long ago and her family had an opening, so Crash went to live with them. He's only two, so I know I can probably do some mentoring there. She lives just up the street from us and I wouldn't even have to cross any roads because she's on the first cul-de-sac on the left. Yup. I could probably go there by myself now that I'm FOUR! (ow..just kidding, Mom...I'd never go without you!).

Tonight I ate all my dinner (fresh baked chicken and duck kibble) and hung out with my Mom. She has a hand towel folded in half for me on the left hand corner of her desk. It's yellow and soft and fluffy, and very VERY comfortable. When she's taking dictation I lay there and stare into space (she thinks). The truth is, which she just now discovered, is that I can see the TV in her bedroom and tonight "Shrek the Third" was on. So I was watching that and trying to remember what I did today. "Donkey" is my favorite character.

OK...Gads. That took a lot of space to tell you about nothing special. Sorry for rambling like that but I guess a lot of stuff actually did happen today. Yup. I'm a lucky pup.

Love and kisses and have a great weekend...

Mary-Margaret

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDPAPA

Today, November 19, my GrandPapa has a birthday. This is a very special birthday because he's going to be 89. Yup. EIGHTY-NINE. He takes pretty good care of himself, eats well (unless you count potato chips, ice cream and Mountain Dew), and he gets up and out every single day. We think he has more energy than me and Mom combined.

We're going to go see him on Thanksgiving. OHhhhhh!!! I can't WAIT. I just love it when fambly gets together, don't you? I wish we could have absolutely everyone to our house but it's just not possible any more. Mom's got arthur-itis in her back and she can't bustle about like she used to. I've seen pictures and heard stories about when she used to get as many as 26 people to a sit-down dinner. That's when my Aunt Susie and Uncle Sneakers were still here. Counting them, that's 28.

Anyway...everybody wish my Grandpapa a very happy birthday. I know we do. And we send him hugs and lots of slurpy kisses.

From our hearts, Grandpapa... You are the BEST!!

Love, Mary-Margaret

Grounded....ME?

Well, shoot. I'm sitting there with my mom watching "Good Morning America" and I hear "MEEE-YOOOOOOWWWR" and "RRRR-OOOOWWWWRRRRRR". Ooooh, (I said) "CAT FIGHT!". Wooo hoo. Who doesn't love a cat fight, I ask?

So I went racing out my little personal door to get a good seat. But they were gone. I missed the whole fight, darn it. I kept walking back and forth along the back wall hoping to catch a glimpse of them but no success. Then I hear "Mary-Margaret, COME!". I pretend I hear nothing and continue patrolling.

"YOU GET IN HERE YOUNG LADY!!". Oh yell yourself silly (I say quietly). I'll come in when I'm darn good and ready. "I SAID COME!!" Yeah Yeah (I say) and I keep walking.

"YOU ARE NOW GROUNDED!" Yeah? Big whoopeeeee (I say) and sit down in the sunlight against the back wall. I hear the door in the kitchen slam a couple of times, but I know it's just a ploy. She's got so many tricks up her sleeve and I'm wise to them all.

Next thing I see is my mom in her lavendar bathrobe and bare feet walking across the lawn to me. Uh oh (I think)..jig's up. I surrender. I am scooped up and...egads! I am thwacked on my butt. Yup. Not hard, but it's emotionally painful for me. I am put in my place and told NEVER do that again and I should "come when you're called!". Well, fine! I am SORRY!

So she goes upstairs to get ready for work and turns around when she gets to the landing. She says "Come!" in her most nicest voice ever. This is a test, I'm sure, but I come anyway. I even race her to the top of the stairs. Hah! I showed her. I am a GOOD puppy. Yup. I just happen to know that I'm smarter than she is, but she is the one with the food and the bed, so I let her think she's boss. I can do "pawlitics" just as good as the next guy.

Love and kisses...

Mary-Margaret

Teaching Tigger

Tigger came in with him mom today. She needed to have a notary done. She told me that Tigger was only 4 months old and wasn't very social. I said "Put him down and I'll socialize him!". She didn't believe me. It took a while but finally Tigger got down on my level. He nipped at me once and I was very gentle. Maybe only fifteen minutes later he was playing nicely.

Ohhh...I DO so love babies. I miss being a mentor at Puppy School. I must be pretty good, too, because when the lady was all done being notarized she gave me a TEN DOLLAR TIP. Wow. I think that's only the second time in my whole life that I've been given a tip. The lady even said I could baby sit Tigger any time. Wow. Who'da thunk it? I can make $$$$$.

Love,

Mary-Margaret "The Entrepreneur" O'Brien

No! No! No! I don't WANNA go!

Gina works Mondays at the bank. I love Gina so I love Mondays. As soon as I saw her I started running toward her. Never mind that Mom was still holding on to my body about four feet off the floor - I had all my arms and legs going at once. I would have flown to Gina if I had wings. I get plopped on the counter and Gina picks me up.

First off, she says "Oh, HI, Mary-Margaret", and then she says "Hang on! I have to cut up some more jerky!". I tell YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! She knows what a puppy likes. While she's slicing and dicing, I am saying "Hello!" to Marilyn and Aida. They say "Hello" back and laugh with me. I'm very careful not to mess up any piles of paper or step on Gina's ink pad again. Yeah...nothing like inky paw prints on the teller's counter, right? Then I sit down until Gina hands me some duck jerky. Oh YUMMMM! (I say). And I remember to say "Thank you!", too.

After Mom makes the deposit and visits with Gina for a bit I hear, "Come on, Mary-Margaret! It's time to go!". Huh? (I say) I don't THEEENK so. I'd rather stay here with Gina. Gina scoots me across the counter toward Mom and I scoot back to Gina. Then something weird happens.

Mom puts her hand against her forehead and says "Ok...I can see you'd rather stay with Gina. Good-bye, Mary-Margaret!". She sort of lists to one side. And then she starts to cry. "Ohhh, Mary-Margaret! I'm so sad and hurt (sob sob)", she goes. Now this bothers me a lot.

I turn around and walk across Gina's counter and reach for my mom. Well, good gosh. I've never heard her cry like that before. I was just kidding. Really, I was. I don't EVER want to be without my mom. Mom turned around and picked me up and she and Gina winked at each other. Now, I'm not totally sure about this so I'm not saying anything, but....well, maybe I got snookered? You think? What's it called..? Alligator tears? Hmmmmmph! See if THAT works again.

I'll probably get to see Gina again on Wednesday. She goes to school on Tuesday and Thursday so I get to snuggle up to Xochitl (pronounced Soshi) those days. I just love Xochitl too.

Love ya...

Mary-Margaret

I'm Home!!

Wow...that was fun! I just LOVE LOVE LOVE hotels. Mom said she should have named me "Eloise". Like...whateverrrrr! I have no idea who that is, but Mom said it was her most favorite book when she was ten. Hmmmmmmm!?

We got home maybe 1:30 or so and picked up our mail and went to Albertson's. They had just taken some freshly roasted chickens out of that thing-a-ma-bob that goes round and round. Guess what I had for dinner tonight?

We ate early and I slept most all afternoon. Conferences can be SOOOOO exhausting, don't you think? I'm told I snored some during one of the presentations today, but by then everybody knew it was me so it's kewl.

Probably going to go to bed early and maybe watch "Desperate Housewives". I outgrew my "Desperate Housedogs" shirt a few sizes ago and we donated it to the vet for puppies who get cold easily. Now I just skootch under the covers if I get chilly. I help keep my mom warn that way, too.

Niters for now.

Yours truly,

Mary-Margaret

PS: My Aunt Allie in Hawaii (who took in ONE homeless chicken to be nice and ended up with a whole flock of them AND fresh eggs, too!) is now the proud mother of a duckling named "Graham Quacker". She says her daughter-in-law, Candice, named him. Isn't he the cutest ever??

Dear GrandPapa....

I'm on a business trip. A conference, if you will. MEEEEE! Mary-Margaret O'Brien. When I found out Mom was going and she was going to take meeeee because I am FOUR and I'm old enough now, I was everly so excited.

Today, we were downstairs listening to people talk. I dozed a bit between taking notes...well, actually, taking notes was pretty hard to do without opposable thumbs, so I was remembering until I fell asleep. Then we had some lunch, and I got to go out a few times. So many smells...so little time.

This afternoon there was a panel of four speakers - One bankruptcy judge and three attorneys. Mom was really into it but I zonked out. After their presentation Mom started explaining that sometimes I snore pretty loud and she hoped it didn't bother any one. Oh, HOW EMBARRASSING! They HEARD me maybe three rows away, and they thought it was my MOTHER. She took it all right, but I blushed a lot.

Then for supper I got to pick what I wanted off the menu. We had FIVE choices: Grilled lemon chicken breast, char-grilled new york sirloin (with rosemary sofritto) , broiled green tea lacquered salmon, shiitake essence, stir fried brown rice with sunny side organic egg (blegh!) and stone fired pizza. I picked STEAK. (Hey, I'm not paying for it!). It was dee-lish!

Tonight I'm all full of energy and messing with Mom's laundry. This is the life. I could get used to it. Room service is the best ever.

Love and kisses....

Mary-Margaret

What the bank said!

We got a call from the bank this morning. Here's how it was explained to my mom:

When the teller closed out her work two days ago she had a couple of extra checks. She made up another deposit slip and put the $650.00 into our account. (Nobody likes loose checks floating around, right?) So what we want to know is....if she fixed what she thought was a problem on the same day, how come they only took out the money and didn't put it back in?

Here's what we think of that "explanation" - (click here)

Love, Mary-Margaret

PS - We get our $4.00 back that they charged us for correcting OUR mistake (HAH!). Mom said they ought to give us back another $4.00 that we are charging them for THEIR mistake. You want to know what they said? Hmmmmmm? Click on the "click here" link again.

Counting on my fingerettes....

One...two...three...four! That's how many checks we had in our bank deposit yesterday afternoon. Today, the bank said we were missing two checks and they took $650.00 out of our account AND charged us $4.00 for doing so. "Um...." (I said)"....four is two times as many as two." I think someone would notice at the time we gave our money to the bank if we were missing something. Two checks is half as thick as four checks. No point in even going to the bank for two checks.

Oh well. My very good friends who work there are going to find the problem and give us back our money. And if they don't we can always get the people who wrote us the checks to give us new ones, in a month or so, if they don't get their checks back. Still....$650.00 is a lot of money, dontcha think? That buys a LOT of duck jerky, to my way of thinking.

Other than the bank losing $650.00 of our money, things are going well. And I got to see my very good friend Gina today. She's my personal banker, you know.

Love,

Mary-Margaret

RIP Bill Graham

Dear Grandpapa - I got this message from RAND today. I think maybe you know him because he was at RAND the same time you were. I'm very sorry that he passed away.

A memorial service for William 'Bill' Graham will be held at RAND in Santa Monica on Sat, November 14th, from 11AM to 1PM.

Bill passed away on October 4th. He worked at RAND as head of the Electronics and Engineering Departments, among other positions, from 1950 to 1982 and as a consultant from 1982 to 1995. His research on defense weapon systems and remotely piloted air vehicles was widely praised by fellow experts, and he spent two tours studying U.S. operations in South Vietnam. He was also a former Navy radar technical officer.

Let me and Mom know if you want to go to the service.

I love you, GrandPapa

Mary-Margaret